In some ways it had felt like forever for Sophie. It had been an odd journey, and one that she had long been waiting for. While she had never been a "furry" in the sense that she'd pretend to be part animal, which had been the biggest part of Animalia's growth once the Animalia Virus was put on the market. Her connections to Animalia had entirely been based on her friendship with Sarah and Abby, who'd accidentally infected and became Animalians and Jessica, who willingly became a Rabbit Animalian out of her fandom for the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." And Sophie loved her friends, in a platonic way, and she committed a lot to her life to helping them and showing everyone that Animalians and Humans could live together.
However, there was the element of flight that she had liked. In that she'd been a bit envious of the various bird and bat Animalians. For awhile, she figured she could wait until she got old and took advantage of the fact that the Animalia Virus had an odd reaction to either physically age those who were immature to physical maturity or reduce their physical age depending on the ages of those involved. However, then came Animalia Ambassadoria's trip to Costa Rica on the way to the reveal of the Brazil colony and visiting the natural history museum there where Sophie had gotten a bit curious into more ancient creatures and namely the Pterosaurs. That would then have further consequences.
While they'd been in Costa Rica, Animalia Ambassadoria had first run into Heather Wilcox who had been running some sort of scam out of the museum. The incident ran sort of like an episode of Scooby Doo in which they'd uncovered the scheme and revealed it. The result was that Heather in anger and desperation took a dose of the Animalia Virus mixed with various fossil DNA which turned her into the first Dinotopian, a hybrid Theropod now referred to as a Syntixisaurus Rex. She then came to Lyre in a quest for revenge and wounded her boyfriend, Roland. Roland survived, but the fight had scared her enough that she privately made her decision. She was ready. She wanted to be able to fly and be safe, and if need be protect Roland from ever facing something like that again. And she chose the species Pterodactyl, or Pterodactylus Antiquus in using the scientific name.
And now, she and Roland would get that chance, even after he agreed to change with her and their parents had accepted it. Sophie couldn't help but smile to Roland as they made their way into Horizon with their parents following.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" her father asked, holding JC's cage, "You know there is no going back..."
"I know, dad," Sophie answered, "But Roland has been sweet and to be honest... flying would be awesome."
"And... I'm pretty sure that I've found one to be with for the rest of my life," Roland added to his own parents.
Their parents had been more hesitant to allow for them to convert than Jessica's parents. They were okay with the two of them dating, which Sophie and Roland both liked, but letting them join Animalia was a bit more difficult. They'd only recently managed to talk them into it allowing it, and that had only come as a result of them agreeing to wait until summer. But now, summer had arrived and they were making their way into Horizon.
"Just so long as you understand the importance of this," Roland's mother commented, "as it is forever."
"We know, mom," Roland answered.
They made their way in through the hallways and soon found themselves outside Jeremy's lab area at Horizon, which would be directly handling Sophie and Roland's conversion and was connected with the group that would be doing JC's when the time came. The door was open and Sophie and Roland lead the way where they found Jeremy clicking at a few things at his computer while Heather was at her station which had been set up as an art area for her to work on promotional things for Horizon and its various projects. She was actually the first to notice them and she gave a toothy smile.
"They're here!" Heather declared to Jeremy while Sophie's father set JC's cage down on an open spot on the desk Jeremy was at.
Sophie head a clear element of happiness in her voice. In some ways it reflected Sophie's own joy at the day finally arriving and was a result of Heather's own long road, which wasn't exactly the clearest one. To summarize, Heather had picked the wrong way to try and help her grandmother and it snowballed from there. Her attack on Roland the previous fall had been more due to being overpowered by the predatory instincts that she wasn't ready for. But, Heather had come a long way and had gotten much better. She was now engaged to Jeremy and had even invited Sophie to at least be a bridesmaid, which Sophie had accepted, showing just how far Heather had come.
Jeremy turned to Sophie and Roland and gave a small smile, "I think she's been as excited about this as you are."
Sophie nodded with a smile. She was excited. She would get to fly, and in some ways, finding out for sure what a Pterodactylus actually looked like was a part of the excitement. Dr. Ramos had published a few papers with Animalia's magazine that dealt with a lot of the facts and myths related to prehistoric life and made a pretty convincing point that Project Mesozoic and Cenozoic were providing a lot of added scientific value in that the DNA locked in the fossil bones, however minute, would provide clues on how extinct animals actually looked. That was actually a big part of Sophie's decision making and made her excited.
Jeremy stood up from his chair, and heard a half whistle as he did so. Sophie blinked in surprise in that it was her mother who'd actually whistled in amazement. Jeremy had become an impressive male Syntixisaurus Rex, but then Animalian males were all rather muscular and well endowed from what Abby had commented on regarding Samson. In this the only thing that really differed Jeremy from Samson was even the smallest dinosaur that was part of the DNA strand that made the Syntixisaurus, Carnotaurus, was easily bigger than even the largest horse. A part of Sophie wondered if her mother was just impressed at Dinotopian sizes, as she was fairly familiar with Animalia already. As both her mother and Roland's mother had been impressed at something the previous Thanksgiving at the Animalian Thanksgiving Diner, and she'd heard a few discussions between her parents, though when she heard the word, "big" she tuned it out with the fear that her parents were talking about sex.
"The paperwork you have signed says you're only going for one dose?" Jeremy asked to confirm as he walked around the desk and pressing an intercom button to summon Doctor Stein.
"Yeah," Sophie nodded, "Only one dose..."
"We don't want to lose our baby," Sophie's father commented.
"She'll always be your daughter," Heather spoke.
"Still, we'd prefer she grow up on her own time and not be rushed into anything," Sophie's father answered, which Jeremy and Heather nodded to.
Jeremy walked to the other side of the lab and opened the refrigerator doors that were labeled "Dinotopia Strains." The fridge was now fairly full with more new DNA samples and even some replacement doses. There was far more vials now that Project Mesozoic was getting ready for its public reveal would be not only successful and stable. He carefully took two vials labeled "Pterodactylus Antiquus" and then turned to the door as Doctor Stein arrived.
"Are we ready?" Doctor Stein asked as he entered.
"Yes, two to become Pterodactyls, single dosed," Jeremy held up the vials and nodded.
"You aren't doing the injections?" Roland's father wondered.
"I'm getting better and handling things," Jeremy told him, "but being one of the larger Animalians does carry certain drawbacks... including some loss of dexterity... at least in comparison to humans and smaller Animalians. I can still manipulate things, but they often need to be scaled up to my size in order to use them well. And right now, most syringes that we use aren't scaled up for a Dinotopian, yet... though once the colony is declared and built up... they may have to, especially if Horizon opens Project Mesozoic offices there."
"Will you be going to this colony?" Sophie's mother asked, "would they make you move?"
"I may have to move with regards to what Horizon wants with regard to running Project Mesozoic, but that's more a job requirement than anything else," Jeremy answered carefully, "otherwise... moving there is completely voluntary. Though with the size scale that Dinotopians have including some like the new Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx Dinotopians at the small end being close to the size of the Chicken Animalians to the Sauropods like Andrew or Luke at the high end... their size issue may force their moving just for their own comfort."
"And Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus aren't even the LARGEST Sauropods," Doctor Stein added, "the Titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus are even bigger."
"But there is nothing to say that Animalia couldn't build something up to scale here if they wanted to or the Dinotopian in question wished to live in Animalia or Lyre," Jeremy spoke.
Sophie's mom and Roland's mom both nodded with some relief at that as Jeremy handed the vials to Doctor Stein who then moved to leave the group out toward the transformation rooms. Sophie's dad was about to lift JC's cage when Doctor Stein turned to him.
"Doctor Ramos and his team will be by in a little while to go through with his uplifting," Doctor Stein spoke, "For the moment, you can wait... as all the paper work for Sophie and Roland are in order. Their transformations will go one at a time and with the data and material we got from Norrie Simus's conversion we should have clothing for them both."
"Okay," Sophie's father spoke.
Sophie and Roland both waved to their parents and then followed Doctor Stein back into Horizon's hallways. They didn't have to go too far until they came up to the door to one of the transformation rooms that Horizon had set up for things like this. He opened the door, and Sophie stepped forward to go in, as she and Roland had already agreed that she would go first. She entered the room and calmly sat on the bed that was there. It was soft and comfortable, though for her, it's only purpose was to give her the room to remove her shoes and socks. She might have to strip off the rest of her clothing as she transformed as what she had on wouldn't work with her body as a Pterodactylus Animalian, but she'd save that for when it happened.
"Are you ready?" Doctor Stein asked her.
Sophie nodded and held out her arm. Doctor Stein chuckled and rolled up Sophie's sleeve before delivering the shot.
"Welcome to Animalia, and welcome to Dinotopia," Doctor Stein said to her and provided the shot.
There was a small pinch as needle went in, but it really didn't hurt. And as Doctor Stein left, Sophie could feel her body starting to grow warm, and in this, she knew she was finally getting to change. She lifted up one foot to see her toenails push out into short and stubby claws while her toes grew slightly longer as well. The biggest thing though was an itching sensation, particularly on her upper chest and torso. This brought her to her feet as she began to disrobe.
Her shirt came off quickly and easily, though as she pulled it off, she found large clumps of her hair going with it. Sophie silently sighed, but then she expected this. While many humans who became Animalians kept their human hair, like Abby, Sarah, or Jessica, for some reason Dinotopians seemed to lose their hair entirely. Even Jeremy lost his hair when he transformed. In this, Sophie expected to lose her hair. Once her shirt was off, Sophie could see what was causing the itching, the pycnofibers that were now growing on her body. Pycnofibers were structures that scientists had found with many soft tissue samples with Pterosaurs. In many ways they resembled mammalian hair or fur, but actually had more in common with bird's feathers with regard to their structure and body-chemistry than hair.
"Not human any more," Sophie smiled to herself her pycnofibers grew in.
Around her neck and shoulders they were white in coloration, and that continued down toward her growing breasts, which were straining her bra a bit. Sophie managed to make her way across the room as she reached behind her to undo the hooks for her bra. As she got it off, a pair of growing white pycnofiber covered breasts were revealed. They seemed to swell larger, and it actually felt good. Sophie hesitantly brought a hand up and caressed her growing chest, which only served to raise a contented sigh. Below her breasts, her pycnofibers began to darken into a grayish color before setting into a black on her upper legs, though she noticed that above her knees those pycnofibers transitioned into a more scaly look, similar to Norrie's in build and shape, but still black in color.
Her arms were fairly similar to her legs. Her growing pycnofibers went down to her elbows and transitioned into more scaly forearms and hands, which didn't lose their human shape. Aside from the black coloration of her hands and forearms, the most inhuman thing was that her five fingered hands were tipped with claws similar to those on her feet. That made Sophie smile, particularly as her own muscles were also swelling a bit larger too, and her hips were growing a bit wider, to match her bust. She managed to get her underwear down... Her hips weren't to the point where she couldn't keep them on, but they actually were feeling a bit tight, though for the moment that wasn't the biggest thing.
"And now for the big changes," Sophie smiled as with a series cracking sounds, her wings burst out from her back and she found herself flaring them out behind her and as her skull began to push forward.
Her wings weren't huge. Sophie guessed that her wingspan was about the same as her actual height at the moment and had three fingers at their apex where they typically were on Pterosaur wings. The big difference between her as a Dinotopian and a mundane Pterodactyl was that her wings were on her back, though her growing beak was such that she couldn't focus on it as much. By now, Sophie had made it in front of the mirror and she could watch as he beak grew forward, her lips and skin hardening into bone of a largely grayish white color and with her nostrils flattening out into openings half way down her beak. Above her nostrils and running toward the top of her head was a half circle shaped crest. She raised a hand to feel it and found that the crest was actually all soft tissue... cartilage.
"Interesting," Sophie mused at this and then held her mouth open. She found that the number of teeth hadn't changed, but they had become smaller and conical, as if to grab fish or small prey, which Pterodactylus was thought to prey on. She managed a small smile with her beak, which was straight and then made her way out to the door where she found Doctor Stein weighting with some clothes just outside the door. "I'm... oh... you're already ready..."
Doctor Stein smiled and handed Sophie the clothes. She put them on as she and Roland than switched places. When Roland emerged, Sophie could see that he went through a similar transformation but there were a few differences. Roland's crest was actually bigger than hers and his coloring was also a bit flashier around his beak. Sophie was largely white with grayish tones that gradually darkened into black and her beak was in two color tones between black and a grayish white. Roland, however, had blue accents on his beak and crest and that proceeded down to his throat and ending just above the white pycnofibers on his own chest.
"You're rather flashy," Sophie said to Roland as she hugged him and ran hands on his stronger chest. She found that her speech was slowed a bit by the fact that her beak didn't have lips, which was similar to the various bird Animalians in many ways.
"That's something you see in a fair number of animal species," Doctor Stein commented from where he was observing them, "the male is often flashy to attract attention while the female is more drab to avoid attention. It's most commonly seen in birds, but you can also see this with the Lion. Only males have manes."
"Well... he has MY attention," Sophie answered and nuzzled her beak to Roland's.
"I'll need to get clothes though," Roland answered, though he did like feeling of Sophie pressing herself against him.